Christmas is not far off, and suddenly happily married couple Jeff (Joe
Swanberg) and Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) - plus their nor yet two-year-old
Jude (Jude Swanberg) - find themselves burdened with his sister Jenny
(Anna Kendrick) who's just gone through a messy breakup and now needs a
place to stay - and space is the one thing Jeff and Kelly have more than
enough ... Even on their first night though, Jenny proves to be a bit of
a problem, partying at someone she doesn't know and forcing Jeff (who's
quite a bit older and more "mature") to pick her up. Naturally,
Kelly isn't too keen on all of this, and she struggles to find common
ground with Jenny even - and then Jenny starts to persuade Kelly to get
back into writing, and even helps her write an erotic novel in pretty much
record time - and Kelly does grow attached to Jenny ... Jenny
though is also a bit too attached to getting stoned, and when her main
supplier (Mark Webber) (also Jeff and Kelly's babysitter, incidently), who
also might be her boyfriend, blows it, Jenny almost burns eown Jeff and
Kelly's house ... Happy Christmas is basically a really
likeable real life movie: Sure, beneath everything else, director Joe
Swanberg might just sharing parts from his own life story (which I'm sure has
striking similarities to this movie) - but he does have a good cast at hand,
a good story, the dialogue is poignant enough, and the direction is
light-footed enough as well. Totally worth your time!
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